Experiments, Out-of-Body
Perceiving Random Objects
I came up with a new experiment.
I haven’t had much luck reading the random letters on my laptop screen while out of body. I thought: maybe I need human involvement?
So I scrounged around and found six random objects:
- White plastic pill bottle
- Brass elephant
- Red foam clown nose
- Wooden deer
- Glass klein bottle
- Yellow sunglasses
Then, last night, I asked my wife to secretly roll a dice, and put the corresponding object on the shelf with the rest of my sensors:
My wife’s random object
The challenge: could I leave my body, and see the correct object?
We did our normal Wednesday morning routine: woke up at 3am, stayed awake for 10 minutes, then returned to bed to attempt to leave our bodies.
I added another element to this experiment: prior to bed, I picked an object in my head, without telling my wife. My idea was that hopefully I picked a different object than the real answer, and I could use that to test if I am perceiving my expectations while out of body, or physical reality.
Annoyingly, I picked the white plastic pill bottle in my head, and that also happened to be the true object.
It’s quite common for my out of body experiences to defy my expectations, so I think the test is still useful.
The first time I left my body, I had an interesting experience, which I outlined in the post Smooth Exit. However, I was so excited, that I wasn’t able to reach the shelf.
I tried again, and was able to exit a second time.
I got out to the hallway, and waved my hands in front of my face, in a mad rush to get my vision online. It took a few moments, and I impatiently yelled “clarity now!” which I’ve heard is supposed to help. My vision did fade in.
I ran down the hallway as fast as I could – there were floating cubes in the hallway that distracted me, and I moved sluggishly due to my excitement.
I did make it though! I quickly looked at the shelf, and saw a white cylinder with an orange top. I would describe it as a stubby aerosol spray:
Rough sketch of what I saw
I returned to my body immediately, and concluded that the white plastic bottle must be on the shelf.
I’m not sure why I saw an orange aerosol top on it, but I still got the basic color and shape.
When I got up in the morning, I checked, and realized that I did perceive it accurately!
So: what does that mean?
Well, there are a lot of ways to interpret the results. Perhaps I just got lucky, or maybe expecation drove the experience. Or maybe I saw some version of reality while floating around.
Pretty exciting, I will have to try again next week!